What is Certification?

During our professional life, it is common for us to develop and acquire skills unrelated to our profession or our initial training. Self-taught people can have quite atypical trajectories and demonstrate valuable professional skills, without having any diploma whatsoever, and this trend will become more pronounced.

It is on the basis of the observation that, in the field of European cultural and social innovation, very many remarkable initiatives existed, but without being covered by a recognized certification, that Relais Culture Europe chose, in 2019, to create an authorisation to validate these skills. It is also a question of recognising the growing importance of, even need for, the skills validated by the Certification.

The Certification of European capacity for cultural and social innovation makes it possible to endorse knowledge, methods and skills, not previously recognized by any qualification.

✓  The 4 skill areas validated by the Certification

During your professional career, you have mounted projects through which you have revealed new transversal abilities, that you have not necessarily identified as such:

• an understanding of the European and international context (in relation to cultural, economic and social changes), with a capacity for strategic monitoring;
• working in European and / or international collaboration, with a truly multilateral dimension;
• development of a European network to realise your projects;
• development of innovative creative and strategic services and / or devices in the cultural and social fields

Thanks to certification, holders come out strengthened by official recognition that will allow them to:

• bring value to their expertise in the context of their roles;
• develop professionally within their organisation;
• move towards a new profession or sector of activity, directly related to the field that this certification relates to.

✓  What target groups and sectors does the Certification aim for?

For all those who have deployed the skills validated by Relais Culture Europe, Certification brings legitimacy and recognition of their abilities. It is also a real starting point to stimulating innovation in their sector of activity, and thus contributing to the creation of the world of tomorrow.

The system of support

Aware that it is not always easy to step back from projects in which you have been very involved, Relais Culture Europe offers individualised support throughout your preparation.

This optional support includes individual and group sessions that will allow you to draw out in a visible way all the skills that you have been able to develop during your journey. Thanks to our supporting team, you will be able to assess your skills. You will thus clearly define the common themes in your experience, by relating these to the fields of expertise evaluated by the Certification.

In a complementary way, Relais Culture Europe and extrapole have joined forces to pool their knowledge and skills and offer a system of support that is both inventive and long-term, in the crossover between cultural and educational fields. Through a grounded and open, methodological approach, the work processes undertaken with the candidates seek to identify new resources and give visibility to current and future European social and cultural practices of innovation, as these are unfolding today.

Educational support is one of the public service missions of Relais Culture Europe. As such, it is entirely free.

How to become a candidate?

Each year, two sessions of Certification validation are organised by Relais Culture Europe. To apply, simply fill out an application form at the start of the session. Your file is then studied by our team, who will conduct a telephone interview with you.

Admission

During this interview, we will check that your experience comprises the 4 skills necessary to obtain certification. You have nothing to prepare for this interview; this is a first assessment of your experience in relation to the objectives of the Certification.

In order to validate your registration, we then present the support possibilities offered by Relais Culture Europe.

Testimonies

“The skills validated by the Certification, are not always well recognised in diploma courses (schools or universities). They correspond to experience in the field, to experience that cannot be generated in the classroom - because these are skills that go far beyond the theoretical framework. In this sense, the contribution of the Certification seems to me essential”. Erica Letailleur, February 2020 session

"For my part, I had accumulated 22 years of professional experience but validated by no diploma. I therefore felt myself in a real quest for legitimacy in relation to my atypical profile. In fact, I already see the virtues of certification! The project leaders with whom I work are indeed sensitive to this. Certification changes the way you are regarded, it establishes and validates skills. Abilities are thus recognised, and those you work with finally afford more value to what you say, when you hold this type of "diploma"”. Didier Rivière, February 2020 session

"What turned out to be exciting for me was the need to ask myself, to look behind everything I had done in recent years. I always live at 200 an hour. So being obliged to take stock, to analyse everything that I had set up, was a chance to better understand and analyse the experience that I have built up”. Henri Devier, February 2020 session

"For the presentation to the jury, I appreciated the freedom offered for the format of presentation. For my part, I came with my own weapons. I recovered an old Japanese theatre in which I displayed graphics and texts. I came with a mask, a soundtrack including the sounds of birds… I am a theatre person, I found it very positive that this presentation could resemble me”. Henri Devier, February 2020 session